PEORIA, AZ -- Kerry Higuera’s toddler Nathan is a happy child, but she fears he could have major problems down the road.
“I have absolutely no idea what to expect,” Higuera said.
She went to the Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale for bleeding when she was 13 weeks pregnant with Nathan, thinking she was having a miscarriage. She ended up getting wheeled into a room to have a CT Scan.
I said, ‘I have to get a CT scan?’ and she said 'yea,'” Higuera said. “And I said, ‘How come?’ She said, 'Because we need to figure out what is causing the abdominal pain.’ I said, “What abdominal pain?”
According to Higuera’s attorney, David Patton, it was a case of mistaken identity. The order was for another woman named Kerry at the same hospital.
Radiation from CT Scans can cause growth defects, retardation, low IQs, even miscarriage for pregnant women.
Higuera says she was also exposed to 11 RADs of radiation, more than twice the standard emission for patients receiving CT scans.
“I was like, oh, I didn't lose the baby, this is the best news! To go back down to, you didn't, but all these bad things could happen,” Higuera said. “It was devastating.”
ABC15 requested a statement from the hospital. Public Relations Director Rainey Holloway e-mailed a statement that said:
“Miss Higuera is represented by legal counsel in this matter, and it appears to be moving forward toward litigation. Therefore, Banner Health is unable to provide any other statement at this time.”Higuera said she has not pursued legal action at this point.
“What I want is, I want Nathan to be taken care of,” she said. “That's it. I want him to be OK. That is the only thing that I'm concerned with, at all.”
She also says she wants other patients to learn from her experience, and if they feel something isn’t right in a medical situation, to speak up and demand to see a doctor.
Nathan’s head circumference is in the bottom fifth percentile, and tests show he has some developmental delays. Higuera’s attorney says he is also at higher risk for cancer.
“It just makes me sad to think about what could happen to him, so honestly, I try not to think about it as much as I can, because I don’t want to treat him differently and I'm really hoping for the best," she said.
